Thursday, 21 August 2014

A fortnight ago, when I saw the challenge theme at A Vintage Journey, an idea for a card formed in my mind's eye, and I thought that's great I've a fortnight.... and now I've just got a half hour left! So glad to get my entry in as it has been a very busy week.

So here's my take on 'Time Flies'

Obviously there is a continuum of 4 seasons.

Spring:
Blended pale DIs through the TH 'Rays' stencil, and then dabbed further through TH 'Latticework' stencil to just give a subtle hint of nature awakening. Diecut butterflies from TH 'Butterfly Frenzy'. Dabbed on multi-medium and coated with Distress Glitter in 'Clear Rock Candy'. Using TH waterbrush painted each butterfly a shade of DI - the glitter absorbs the DI well. Stained a chipboard Steampunk cog with 'Brushed Pewter'. Then followed the Shelly Hickox recipe for faux metal effects (with UTEE and EP) to 'age' the cog. Inserted TH game spinner and words cut from Maja Design papers.

Summer:
Using wrinkle free distress technique applied oodles of DIs to get some summery shades. Stamped TH 'Bird Branch', deliberated whether to clear emboss it or not, and chose not too - sorry now that I didn't! Added larger butterflies (a la Jools' DT project) that again I coloured with DIs using TH water pen. As before, script from Maja Design papers. Corner cog done in gold hues using same technique as in Spring.

Autumn:
Blended DIs to Ranger CS and when dry scrunched up the CS to get lots of creases. Then inked the creases with DIs and a touch of gilding wax. Stamped TH 'Time' stamp in Archival. Punched some leaves (sorry don't have any TH leaf or flower dies). Coloured the leaves as before. Added cog to corner that I've aged in copper shades, spinner and text as before.

Winter:
Wrapped CS with TH tissue . Applied texture paste through TH 'Holiday Knit' stencil (this made me want to get out my knitting needles that have not seen the light of day for many years!!) Used 'Snow Cap' paint dabber on corner cog. Text and game spinner as before. Punched some little snow flakes and glittered. Diecut 'Angel Wings' - stamped and embossed them. Dabbed my fave Stickles 'Mercury Glass' to 'Winter' elements to represent Christmas during the bleak whiteout.

Base layer:
Maja design paper that I've stamped and embossed with repeated TH 'Time' stamp and embossed with Antiquities 'Weathered White'. Then blended over some 'Tea Dye' and 'Walnut Stain' to highlight the stamping.

Upper layers:
First up there is a chipboard cog. Next comes the diecut 'Pocket Watch' - I used acetate so that I didn't hide too much of underlying layers. Gilded rim of pocketwatch. Stencilled in (TH 'Clockwork') white texture paste and dabbed with 'Mercury Glass'. (My initial idea was to colour the texture paste, in line with the seasons. The result wasn't great however so this was binned). On top of that is another cog (coloured with 'Antique Bronze' stain and gilding wax). On top is diecut from the 'Caged Bird' die using Maja Design paper. Gave bird a few coats of UTEE and then cracked him!. Placed game spinner, wing and eye. I think he winked! Time flies in the blink of an eye...

C'est ça! Hope you like!

Very many thanks for your visit and as always, I greatly appreciate any comments you might leave.

Thursday, 7 August 2014

Hello and thank-you for visiting! I'm back from a lovely holiday and happy to be crafting again. I've gone for a buttery, yellow shade with my card depicting a family of little birdies twittering in the sunshine.

Several months back I won some beautiful Pion Design papers from their 'Flower Frames' collection. I've finally cut into these gorgeous papers for the first time. The family of birds is a Magenta stamp that I've gold embossed and then coloured in with my Tim Holtz water pen using Tea Dye DI. Diecut the top upper layer with a MFT die. I was wondering what to do for the lower layer and looking around the room my eyes happened upon the curtains - thus getting the idea to 'triple pleat' the lower yellow paper (used glue gun for rapid sticking of pleats). I inked all edges of the various paper layers with Krylon gold leafing pen. Drew some little dotty doodads with waco gold pearl pen. Rubbed gilding wax across some flowers and chipboard honeycomb. Added ribbon, tulle, muslin, and pins. Finished off with sparkling gems for the birds' eyes.

I'm so glad you stopped by - your visits are much appreciated. Hope there is sunshine in your life today (whether real or metaphorical).